Osram has revealed details of LEDs aimed specifically at vehicle headlights.

"The arrangement of five chips in a row simulates the low beam light pattern of conventional light sources," Osram spokeswoman Marion Reichl told EW. "Other arrangements could be possible."

Part of the firm’s Ostar range, Ostar Headlamp uses five of the firm’s ‘ThinGaN’ chips which together produce 250 lm at 700mA.

"Without optics the LEDs meet the requirements of reflection systems," said Orsam. "The light from these surface emitters can be injected in customer-specific optics."

The in-line arrangement helps to meet the strict horizontal light cut-off regulations that prevent above-horizontal light from dazzling on-coming drivers.

Colour temperature is 5,600K, close to natural daylight "In particular this improves visibility at the edges of the illuminated zone because the human eye is better at perceiving objects in daylight white light than in other light colours," claimed the company.

Four of these LEDs, complete with separate reflective or refractive optics for each - the firm is aiming at both - will be needed to replace a single car halogen lamp, said Reichl, or six to replace a ‘xenon’ arc lamp: "One of the benefits of a LED solution is the flexibility it offers to the car designers: freedom in shaping their headlamps and giving the car’s ‘eyes’ an individual look."

The firm also plans Ostar ‘Headlamp Hot Spot’. "This will be a 350 lm device," said Osram. "In the Hot Spot version a special lens is used as the primary optics to focus the light."

It will also have five LED chips, but it is unclear if the arangement will be the same, or whether it will be Osram’s ‘main beam’ device. "The Ostar Headlamp is a product platform that offers a variety of possible arrangement of chips," said Reichl.

Both LEDs will be qualified according to automotive standard AEC-Q101. "These light sources generate white light in the ECE and SAE standard range," said Osram. "They can easily withstand the -40 to +125°C operation temperatures in headlight applications."

Earlier this year Osram revealed Ostar Lighting, a 420 lm six die device with an in-built lens on a base which is mechanically interchangeable with Lumileds Luxeon Star devices.